Ibo van de Poel new Delft KNAW member

The KNAW has selected eighteen new members, four of whom are from TU Delft. Ibo van de Poel is one of them. KNAW members, leading scientists from all disciplines, are chosen on the basis of their scientific achievements.

Ibo van de Poel (1966)Professor of Ethics & TechnologyIbo van de Poel helps engineers incorporate values ​​such as safety, sustainability, privacy, well-being and justice in their designs. He has described the "problem of many hands": in R&D networks sometimes no one feels morally responsible for the end product, because many people perform separate actions. Van de Poel develops strategies to deal with this. He also examines the ethical aspects of new technologies, such as bio- and nanotechnology. Conventional approaches to risk management are not directly applicable to this, because the risks are still unknown or uncertain. Van de Poel considers such emerging technology as a social experiment: he tries to formulate conditions under which such an experiment is morally acceptable.

The other three new TU Delft members are: Frans van der Helm, Jack Pronk and Barbara Terhal.